The House Oversight Committee will hold a hearing next week to dig into the Department of Energy’s proposed gas stove regulations, a controversial regulatory effort that has sparked backlash and bipartisan opposition.
House Oversight Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs Chairman Pat Fallon, R-Texas, announced the hearing, which is scheduled for July 18 and is called “Cancelling Consumer Choice: Examining the Biden Administration’s Regulatory Assault on Americans’ Home Appliances.”
“The Department of Energy’s wave of new standards on everyday appliances from stoves to dishwashers to lightbulbs embodies the Biden Administration’s whole-of-government approach to over-regulate Americans’ day-to-day lives,” Fallon said in a statement.
As The Center Square previously reported, House lawmakers passed the “Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act” with bipartisan support earlier this year. The legislation would prevent the Consumer Products Safety Commission from using taxpayer dollars to regulate gas stoves as a “banned hazardous product” or implement any regulations that would practically prohibit gas stoves by making them too expensive.
“The Biden administration is intent on weaponizing every aspect of the federal government to achieve its ideological goals,” U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., who sponsored the bill, said in a statement. “Consumer protection should be about safety, not used as a veiled push to eliminate fossil fuels and the millions of jobs they support. Americans should decide if gas stoves are right for their families, not the Federal Government.”
The hearing is the latest step by lawmakers to build momentum against the regulatory effort, which polling has shown is largely unpopular. A Harvard CAPS Harris poll from June found that 69% of those surveyed opposed a gas stove ban.
Environmental activists have defended the policy, raising concerns about the environmental impact of the methane released from gas stoves as well as research suggesting gas stoves could cause conditions like asthma.
Fallon argues the proposed policy will put a financial hardship on Americans.
“The Biden Administration is doubling down on policies that will only make American families’ lives more expensive, after already ignoring the skyrocketing inflation it inflicted,” he said. “The American people deserve to further understand these bizarre, targeted efforts to regulate their appliances out of existence.”
